Fox Lake Report and look’in for tips (from Stacie and Stephanie)

June 16, 2006 at 6:35 pm

Hey Dennis!

Stacie (aka: DogsledStacie) here. LOVE the fishing blog. As total newbie fisherwomen, my friend, Stephanie and I have been fishing together for like, 3 years. We have yet to catch a fish!!! But dammit we keep trying.

So we headed out to Little Fox Lake a few days ago. We took the canoe and even though it was windy as hell, we fought our way across the lake.

I must mention that when we first arrived, a guy and his kid had just come out of the water with one trout in hand! He gave us some tips on what to use (we usually have no idea, we just try everything) and told us once he put one of these rubber greenish fish (2 inches long) on his something-wabbler, he got bites like crazy.

So we headed to one of the little bays on the other side of the lake where he said he got lucky. It was shallow and less windy there, the lake was clear as glass and we saw fish EVERYWHERE!!! We had high hopes. We started out with these little fishy things he suggested (he had very nicely given us a few of his), and these damned fish were super interested. We lost count of how many fish were actually chasing our hooks. We could see it all happening!! But do you think any of them got up the nerve to bite: no!!

It was pure torture watching this happen for hours on end. We ended up trying everything in our tackle boxes and just couldn’t nab one. So we went home, fish-less once again: :(

Any tips on what to use? How to fish to attract these guys? We’re not sure why they weren’t biting - the canoe? The paddling? We just floated around in the bay, but nothing seemed to work. The guy told us jigging seemed to work for him. Do you have tips and stuff on your blog - that would be useful for us.

Anyways, there you go. We will try again!! And I’ll keep you posted on our fishing adventures! Stacie

Dennis here…thanks for your great report. Not that I am an expert but here are a couple of things to think about:

1) make sure your lures are getting to the right depth. In the spring the fish are a bit closer to the surface but as the summer progrsses they will get lower, especially Lake Trout. Not a bad idea to try to always fish low in the water. You should almost be concerned you will snag on the bottom. Best way to check is drop a heavy lure all the way to the bottom and remember how many feet down or mark it on your line, then every time you put line out or cast, keep it there. Use weights to get it down if your lure does not get there by itself, but keep the weights a bit away from your lure and more up the line.

2) you may be seeing fish in the spring in the clear shallows but they still like to bite where it transitions to the deeper part. For example, rather than casting into the shallow area where you see the fish, try trolling or casting at the point where you think it starts getting deep or where the shallows meet some structure (i.e. weeds, rocks, cliff, drop-off, logs, etc.).

3) try trolling slowly with your canoe but make sure your line is out well away from your canoe and enough weight that it gets deep in the water. Sometimes I have so much line out that I am almost at my reel backing and risk snagging the bottom.

4) ensure that the size of your lures match the fish. Quite often we cast out big lures for fish with small mouths. Fish are either looking for small fry (other fish), insects, or they are agressive and will attack anything. Not that it is a science but think about this when you pick a lure. Don’t be scared of small lures as well. You can catch big fish with small lures.

5) Another way to fish stocked lakes here for rainbows is with a bobber and some powerweight. It is a bit more passive but works. I am guessing that you like to be active to trolling with the canoe is always a good idea…that way you can still get in a nice paddle.

6) It is good to practice on small stocked lakes like McLean or the Yukon River for Grayling. If you put some rod hours in you will catch fish. The bigger lakes like Lebarge, Fish, Fox get harder to fish through the summer without serious fishing gear like downriggers.

Thats all I can think of right now. Thanks again for your report. Send me some pics next time and I’ll put them up too.

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